Trailers for Miss Representation and The Mask You Live In

Trailers for Miss Representation and

The Mask You Live In

The Representation Project

These two short video texts are excerpts from longer films that explore the significance of the media in shaping our expectations of femininity and masculinity. The first is the trailer for Miss Representation, a 2011 documentary that explores the connection between media representation of girls and women and the underrepresentation of women in politics, business, and other positions of power. The second video text, The Mask You Live In, is a trailer for the forthcoming partner film to Miss Representation about the effects of socializing boys to “man up” in U.S. culture. These texts offer qualitative and quantitative data about the effects of the media and culture on girls and boys, and the long-standing effects these can have on the ways we think about ourselves and act in the world.

Marie C. Wilson, one of the experts quoted in Miss Representation and co-founder of “Take Our Daughters and Sons to Work Day,” says of the media’s representation of very narrow definitions of femininity (and masculinity, as Jackson Katz points out) that “You can’t be what you can’t see.” In other words, the media matters because it shapes our sense of what is normal and desirable. How might the media become “an instrument of change,” as Katie Couric says in Miss Representation, for both girls and boys? What examples might you point to of alternative media that foster healthier role models for all of us?

Courtesy of the Representation Project http://therepresentationproject.org/

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Courtesy of the Representation Project http://therepresentationproject.org/

Reading as a Writer: Analyzing Rhetorical Choices

After watching the trailers for Miss Representation and The Mask You Live In, consider the question(s) below. Then “submit” your response.

Question 13.1

1. How does the Miss Representation video text use statistics to build the argument that U.S. culture has damaging effects on girls? Watch the video at least twice, taking notes on the statistics and where they are placed in the video. How are the numbers in conversation with other examples and quotations from experts? How do the numbers contribute to the argument?

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Question 13.2

2. Drawing on the methods of “Analyzing Visual Rhetoric” in Chapter 8, choose a few short examples from The Mask you Live In to interpret in detail (images, language, context, etc.). Share and compare your ideas with a partner, a small group, or the class. What conclusions can you draw about effective visual argumentation?

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Writing as a Reader: Entering the Conversation of Ideas

After watching the trailers for Miss Representation and The Mask You Live In, consider the question below. Then “submit” your response.

Question 13.3

1. These video texts might invite you to think about other forms of media discussed in this chapter, such as print advertising (Jean Kilbourne’s topic) or video games (Jane McGonigal’s topic) or children’s films (Ken Gillam and Shannon R. Wooden’s topic). Explore the social effects of your chosen media form using the appropriate author/s and drawing on arguments and examples used in the video texts. You might also add in examples that you find on your own. Respond through informal writing, discussion with a partner or small group, or in a more formally developed essay.

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